The moment I laid eyes on this book I knew I wanted to read it, and I found it to be beautiful both inside and out.

Many years before “green” became fashionable, Alice Waters was living in Berkeley, California, running her own restaurant. Though she had been trained at the International Montessori School in London, Alice knew after several years of teaching that her true calling was the culinary arts. Soon she opened her own restaurant in Berkeley, California, but it was not too long before she began to notice that the once vibrant public education system was suffering.

With all the beauty of synchronicity, Alice began to share her ideas and soon she had teachers and volunteers willing to make the dream a reality: a school garden. The idea of Edible Education involves the following principles: Food is an academic subject; Schools provide lunch for every child; Schools support farms; Children learn by doing; Beauty is language. Teachers are able to turn every type of lesson out of the school garden–lessons for math, writing, reading, and science to name a few.

Alice’s story quickly goes to your heart. I immediately wanted to find out if there were school gardens in our own public school system here in Jackson–and there are! Buddy Bounds and Noah Gray lead the Environmental Learning Program for the Jackson Public Schools. Since 1992, they have been providing all kinds of outdoor programs for students to enjoy. Some of these include: Gardening; Soil Erosion; Nature Trails; Fishing; Water Testing; Catfish Feeding; Soil Conservation; Recycling; Nonpoint Source Pollution; Plant/Tree Identification. All of this takes place on 640 acres that is said to be “breathtaking.” The area boasts a 35 acre lake, 14 miles of nature trails, three outdoor classrooms, catfish pond, ropes course, cemetery (1800 circa), old home sites, more than 75 different native trees, animals, and much more.

School gardens beckon individuals to come together whether you are a teacher, parent, child or involved citizen. I have heard of one more school garden devoted to just one school, Marshall Elementary. I wonder how they are doing. Do you know about a school garden in the area? Please comment if you do.

Much more information on Edible Education can be found on Alice Waters’ website.

In 2000, Michael Cunningham’s The Hours won the Pulitzer Prize. Those who did not read it probably ended up seeing the spectacular movie by the same name featuring many contemporary Hollywood faces. Now, Cunningham has written another novel, entitled By Nightfall, this time based on the life of an art gallery dealer in New York City.

Set in current day times, Cunningham does a great job of describing the SoHo art district and the thin walled loft inhabited by the 40-something protagonist Peter and his disillusioned editor wife, Rebecca.  All rocks along in their rather non-spectacular, often boring existence, until Rebecca’s wayward much younger brother Ethan settles in at their loft for a three week stay. His cunning personality mixed with his inability to “find himself” rocks the status quo and sends chills and questions into the hearts and minds of Peter and Rebecca. This short, but appealing, novel expands on the nature of contemporary wealthy city life, its characteristics  and dilemmas, and the role of all kinds of love in the twenty-first century.

Signed copies are available!

-Nan

SCOOP Studios Contemporary Art is having a show for William Goodman this weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. I have followed William’s art for some time now and have been surprised, amazed, and excited about his maturation as an artist. His work has been shown in galleries in Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, New York, and of course in his hometown Jackson. His inclusion in Mississippians acknowledges his bountiful creative and artistic skills.

You might say that I am responsible for the early creative application of William’s skills. I coached him on baseball diamonds and soccer fields and remember well his expression of determination while swinging the bat or trying to score a goal. His athletic picture still hangs in OZ.

William’s opening at SCOOP, entitled “Smut and Paste”, is a highlight for me because the gallery is co-owned by my daughter, Saramel, who incidentally cheered for William from ballpark bleachers.

A rewarding aspect of growing older is watching how friendships from childhood evolve to share the common ground of adulthood. Caring bonds of youthful friendship evolving into business relationships. Who would have thought over 20 years ago that William’s mom, Nan, would be working as a bookseller at Lemuria and Saramel would be opening an art show for a Mississippi emerging artist to the art folk of South Carolina.

View more of William’s Art at his website enhancedmixture.com.

Ever thought about writing a book about politics based on your years in the Mississippi Legislature?

Answer: Yes. There are a lot of notes. Some of the greatest storytellers I’ve ever encountered were in the Legislature. Ed Perry from Oxford, Jerry Wilbourn from Itawamba County, Jim Simpson from the Coast, Sonny Meridith from Greenville, Jim Nunnally from Ripley, just to name a few. They could tell stories for hours and never let the facts get in the way. -John Grisham

When Lemurians read this question & answer, we remembered the Foreword John Grisham wrote for Jere Nash and Andy Taggart’s Mississippi Politics:

“Moments after taking office in January of 1984, I lined up on the wrong side of House Speaker Buddie Newman. It was a symbolic flight by some young hotshots, and when the bloodletting was over I was lucky to have a parking space and a desk. I was three hours away from home, too far for a daily commute. I was stuck at the state capitol with little to do.”

“So I began writing my first novel. I also began taking notes. Some of the finest storytellers around were these seasoned politicians who arrived from every corner of the state, and, with plenty of time on their hands, polished their material. There certain spots in the bowels of the capitol where they would congregate, usually around a coffee pot, and exchange outrageous and hilarious stories. As a harmless rookie, I was allowed to sit and listen. There were times when I laughed until I ached.”

“(The party ended for me when the word leaked that I was writing something. After that, when I walked upon a group, things became very quiet.)”

Stay tuned to the blog over the coming weeks: John Grisham will be answering more of his own questions no one has ever asked him before.

See if you can correctly answer Question #1 to win signed first editions and other goodies. (By the way, John Evans, has added one more prize to the pot: A signed first edition of King of Torts—click here to find out more.) This first question will be answered at the end of Grisham’s question series.

.        Ever get tired of writing about lawyers?

        Answer:  Never. There's too much good material. I am a constant
observer of the         legal profession, and trials and lawyers and trends
in litigation, and the         material is endless, and fascinating.

9.        Ever thought about writing a book about politics based on your years
in the         Mississippi Legislature?        

        Answer: Yes.  There are a lot of notes.  Some of the greatest
storytellers I've         ever encountered were in the Legislature.  Ed Perry
from Oxford, Jerry Wilbourn         from Itawamba County, Jim Simpson from the
Coast, Sonny Meridith from Greenville,         Jim Nunnally from Ripley,just to
name a few.  They could tell stories for hours         and never let the facts        get8.        Ever get tired of writing about lawyers?          Answer:  Never. There's too much good material. I am a constant observer of the         legal profession, and trials and lawyers and trends in litigation, and the         material is endless, and fascinating.   9.        Ever thought about writing a book about politics based on your years in the         Mississippi Legislature?                  Answer: Yes.  There are a lot of notes.  Some of the greatest storytellers I've         ever encountered were in the Legislature.  Ed Perry from Oxford, Jerry Wilbourn         from Itawamba County, Jim Simpson from the Coast, Sonny Meridith from Greenville,         Jim Nunnally from Ripley,just to name a few.  They could tell stories for hours         and never let the facts        get in the way.
in the way.

“Here’s the juice children: If you want to be a writer, if you want to create a Persona and a body of work that is woven in the golden thread of Truth, then you must, before anything else, go out into the world and do some serious looking around . . . [A writer] must listen to the way people talk, and watch what they do, and in the process get his hands dirty, get his heart broken, sin a little or a lot, get shot at maybe, find himself afraid, and come to know what being lonely and tired and angry really means. He must learn that passion, if it is real, has consequences, and one of them may well be the grave. There is no other route to being an artist, here endeth the lesson.” (16-17)

“For once, I was encouraged in my flight by a wise, if contentious, comrade: the switchman Frank Smith, who knew things deeply, and felt them deeply; whose mind seemed to have opened like a lotus flower since I had been away.”

“One night, Frank drew his pistol from his back pocket–it was a Colt Peacemaker .22, which he still owns and still threatens me with from time to time–and drew the hammer back. Time for you to go to college my man, he said. College or death: not even The Old Man had couched it in those terms. So it was that I loaded up my red Volkswagen²¹ and went of to Academia, this time with the intention of learning and not amounting . . .”

“At my beloved University of Mississippi, I came to learn that ideas were important, but they meant nothing, were mere empty utterances, without experience to shape them and make connections among them. Existentialism, nihilism, Augustian grace, negative space, surrealism: when I met them in college, I recognized them as old friends. I had already met them out at sea, or on the railroads in perilous dark.” (41-42)

Howard’s essay, “Railroad As Art,” is excerpted from Sonny Brewer’s Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit. Howard is the author of three critically acclaimed novels on the civil war: The Black Flower (1997), winning an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a New York Times Notable book; The Year of Jubilo (2000); and The Judas Field (2006). Pelican Road (2008) is a departure from the American civil war era and takes on a subject near to the author’s heart: the railroad.

Sonny Brewer will be signing Don’t Quit Your Day Job at 5:o0 tonight. The collection includes essays from John Grisham, Pat Conroy, Suzanne Hudson, Brad Watson, Steve Yarbrough, Tom Franklin, Rick Bragg, and many more.

Read excerpts from John Grisham, Pat Conroy.

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